Survival Analysis Commons^™

Statistical Methods For Joint Outcome Modeling And Dynamic Assessment Of Recurrent Events, Zifang Kong

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Recurrent event data frequently arise in clinical studies where individuals experience repeated, possibly related, events over time. These data are often accompanied by sparse and irregular longitudinal measurements, creating challenges for traditional joint modeling approaches that struggle to account for time-dependent associations and within-subject correlations. We propose FRAILTY (Functional Regression with AutoRegressIve fraiLTY), a novel two-step framework that integrates functional principal component analysis (PACE) with a dynamic frailty model featuring autoregressive structure. FRAILTY accommodates both scalar and functional predictors and captures within-subject dependence across recurrent events. To further extend its utility, we develop a multivariate joint modeling framework that simultaneously …

Optimal Experimental Planning Of Reliability Experiments Based On Coherent Systems, Yang Yu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In industrial engineering and manufacturing, assessing the reliability of a product or system is an important topic. Life-testing and reliability experiments are commonly used reliability assessment methods to gain sound knowledge about product or system lifetime distributions. Usually, a sample of items of interest is subjected to stresses and environmental conditions that characterize the normal operating conditions. During the life-test, successive times to failure are recorded and lifetime data are collected. Life-testing is useful in many industrial environments, including the automobile, materials, telecommunications, and electronics industries.

There are different kinds of life-testing experiments that can be applied for different purposes. …

Empirical Likelihood Ratio Tests For Homogeneity Of Distributions Of Component Lifetimes From System Lifetime Data With Known System Structures, Jingjing Qu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In system reliability, practitioners may be interested in testing the homogeneity of the component lifetime distributions based on system lifetimes from multiple data sources for various reasons, such as identifying the component supplier that provides the most reliable components.

In the first part of the dissertation, we develop distribution-free hypothesis testing procedures for the homogeneity of the component lifetime distributions based on system lifetime data when the system structures are known. Several nonparametric testing statistics based on the empirical likelihood method are proposed for testing the homogeneity of two or more component lifetime distributions. The computational approaches to obtain the …

Regression Modeling Of Complex Survival Data Based On Pseudo-Observations, Rong Rong

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

The restricted mean survival time (RMST) is a clinically meaningful summary measure in studies with survival outcomes. Statistical methods have been developed for regression analysis of RMST to investigate impacts of covariates on RMST, which is a useful alternative to the Cox regression analysis. However, existing methods for regression modeling of RMST are not applicable to left-truncated right-censored data that arise frequently in prevalent cohort studies, for which the sampling bias due to left truncation and informative censoring induced by the prevalent sampling scheme must be properly addressed. Meanwhile, statistical methods have been developed for regression modeling of the cumulative …

Dynamic Prediction For Alternating Recurrent Events Using A Semiparametric Joint Frailty Model, Jaehyeon Yun

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Alternating recurrent events data arise commonly in health research; examples include hospital admissions and discharges of diabetes patients; exacerbations and remissions of chronic bronchitis; and quitting and restarting smoking. Recent work has involved formulating and estimating joint models for the recurrent event times considering non-negligible event durations. However, prediction models for transition between recurrent events are lacking. We consider the development and evaluation of methods for predicting future events within these models. Specifically, we propose a tool for dynamically predicting transition between alternating recurrent events in real time. Under a flexible joint frailty model, we derive the predictive probability of …

Improved Statistical Methods For Time-Series And Lifetime Data, Xiaojie Zhu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, improved statistical methods for time-series and lifetime data are developed. First, an improved trend test for time series data is presented. Then, robust parametric estimation methods based on system lifetime data with known system signatures are developed.

In the first part of this dissertation, we consider a test for the monotonic trend in time series data proposed by Brillinger (1989). It has been shown that when there are highly correlated residuals or short record lengths, Brillinger’s test procedure tends to have significance level much higher than the nominal level. This could be related to the discrepancy between …

Statistical Models And Analysis Of Univariate And Multivariate Degradation Data, Lochana Palayangoda

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

For degradation data in reliability analysis, estimation of the first-passage time (FPT) distribution to a threshold provides valuable information on reliability characteristics. Recently, Balakrishnan and Qin (2019; Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, 35:571-590) studied a nonparametric method to approximate the FPT distribution of such degradation processes if the underlying process type is unknown. In this thesis, we propose improved techniques based on saddlepoint approximation, which enhance upon their suggested methods. Numerical examples and Monte Carlo simulation studies are used to illustrate the advantages of the proposed techniques. Limitations of the improved techniques are discussed and some possible solutions …