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.

Self-contained volume examining new results in applied probability and statistics Contains a broad range of survey articles written by experts currently working on the development and evaluation of new models and methods in the field While many books deal with general theory, several chapters in this volume explore more specific connections and recent results in "real-world" reliability theory having applications to such areas as biostatistics, cancer prognosis, air pollution analysis, and aging

Autorentext
N. Balakrishnan is an Associate Director and Professor at Department of Aerospace Engineering and Supercomputer Edu- cation and Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science. His research interests include numerical electromagnetic, multi-parameter radars, and signal processing. His publications include 19 books and many peer-reviewed journal papers.

Inhalt
I: Cox Models and Analyses.- 1 Estimation in Partly Parametric Additive Cox Models.- 2 Nonparametric Maximum Likelihood Estimation in the Proportional Hazards Model with Covariate Measurement Error.- 3 Diagnostics for Cox's Proportional Hazards Model.- II: Degradation Models and Analyses.- 4 Semiparametric Analysis of Degradation and Failure Time Data with Covariates.- 5 On a Degradation-Failure Model for Repairable Items.- 6 Comparison of Parametric and Semiparametric Estimates in a Degradation Model with Covariates and Traumatic Censoring.- III: Accelerated Failure Time Models and Analyses.- 7 Accelerated Life Testing, Fuzzy Information and Generalized Probability.- 8 Asymptotic Theory in Rank Estimation for AFT Model Under Fixed Censorship.- 9 An Example of Optimal Design in Accelerated Experiments.- IV: Aging Properties and Analyses.- 10 Aspects of Multivariate Aging in Exchangeable Frailty Models.- 11 Semiparametric Models in the Studies of Aging and Longevity.- V: Analyses of Censored and Truncated Data.- 12 Semiparametric Transformation Models for Arbitrarily Censored and Truncated Data.- 13 EM Algorithm for Type-II Right Censored Bivariate Normal Data.- 14 Statistical Estimation Based on Interval Censored Data.- VI: Regression Methods and Applications.- 15 The Covariate Order Method for Nonparametric Exponential Regression and Some Applications in Other Lifetime Models.- 16 Effect of Ignoring Heterogeneity in Hazards Regression.- VII: Time Series Analysis.- 17 An Introduction to Efficient Estimation for Semiparametric Time Series.- VIII: Inferential Analysis.- 18 Distance-based Multivariate Two Sample Tests.- 18 Empirical Likelihood in Nonparametric and Semiparametric Models.- 19 Goodness of Fit Tests of L2-Type.- IX: Multicentre Studies.- 12 AsymptoticProperties of the CRT Estimators for Multicentre Studies.- X: Quality of Life Studies.- 22 HRQoL and Concomitant Adjusted Mean Residual Life Analysis.- 23 Semiparametric Approach to the Multivariate Mixed Rasch Model.- XI: Breast Cancer Studies.- 24 Breast Cancer Prognosis Using Survival Forests.- 25 Semiparametric Versus Parametric Regression Analysis Based on the Bounded Cumulative Hazard Model: An Application to Breast Cancer Recurrence.- XII: Inference for Processes.- 26 Estimation of Analytic Spectral Density of Gaussian Stationary Processes.- 27 Sub-optimal Estimation of an Unknown function from Stationary Noisy Data.- 28 On Parameter Estimation by Contaminated Observations of Ergodic Diffusion Processes auYu. A. Kutoyants.- 29 On Parameter Estimation for a Position-Dependent Marking of a Doubly Stochastic Poisson Process.- 30 Discrete Time Semi-Markov Processes for Reliability and Survival Analysis - A Nonparametric Estimation Approach.- 31 Non-parametric Estimation on Lifetimes of Subjects Exposed to Radiation from a Semi-Markov Process.- XIII: Probability Theory and Applications.- 32 An Extension of Lévy' s Formula to Weighted Wiener Processes.- 33 Sur l'Inégalité de Concentration de Doeblin-Lévy, RogozinKesten.