This volume consists of twenty-four papers selected by the editors from the sixty-one papers presented at the 1st International Conference on Mathemati cal Methods in Reliability held at the Politehnica University of Bucharest from 16 to 19 September 1997. The papers have been divided into three sections: statistical methods, probabilistic methods, and special techniques and appli cations. Of course, as with any classification, some papers could be as well assigned to other sections. Problems in reliability are encountered in items in everyday usage. Relia bility is an important feature of household appliances, cars, telephones, power supplies, and so on, whether viewed from the vantage of the producer or the consumer. Important decisions are based on the reliability of the product. Obtaining systems that perform adequately for a specified period of time in a given environment is an important goal for both government and industry. Hence study and use of reliability theory, which can be applied in the research, development, and production phases of a system to enable the user to evaluate and improve performance, is a worthwhile venture. If reliability theory is to be useful, it must be quantitative in nature, because reliability must be demonstra ble. Subsequently probability and statistics, among others, play an important part in its development.

Inhalt
I: Statistical Methods.- 1 Statistical Modeling and Analysis of Repairable Systems.- 2 CPIT Goodness-of-Fit Tests for Reliability Growth Models.- 3 On the Use of Minimally Informative Copulae in Competing Risk Problems.- 4 Model Building in Accelerated Experiments.- 5 On Semiparametric Estimation of Reliability From Accelerated Life Data.- 6 Analysis of Reliability Characteristics Estimators in Accelerated Life Testing.- 7 Chi-Squared Goodness of Fit Test for Doubly Censored Data With Applications in Survival Analysis and Reliability.- 8 Estimation of Kernel, Availability and Reliability of Semi-Markov Systems.- II: Probabilistic Methods.- 9 Stochastical Models of Systems in Reliability Problems.- 10 Markovian Repairman Problems. Classification and Approximation.- 11 On Limit Reliability Functions of Large Systems. Part I.- 12 On Limit Reliability Functions of Large Systems. Part II.- 13 Error Bounds for a Stiff Markov Chain Approximation Technique and an Application.- 14 On the Failure Rate of Components Subjected to a Diffuse Stress Environment.- 15 Modelling the Reliability of a Complex System Under Stress Environment.- 16 On the Failure Rate.- 17 Asymptotic Results for the Failure Time of Consecutive k-out-of-n Systems.- III: Special Techniques and Applications.- 18 Two-State Start-Up Demonstration Testing.- 19 Optimal Prophylaxis Policy for Systems With Partly Observable Parameters.- 20 Exact Methods to Compute Network Reliability.- 21 On Matroid Base Families and the Reliability Computation of Totally Amenable Systems.- 22 The Computer-Assisted Analysis of the Semi-Markovian Stochastic Petri Nets and an Application.- 23 Incremental Approach for Building Stochastic Petri Nets for Dependability Modeling.- 24 Lifetime of High Temperature Working Pipes.