Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:06:53.405Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Characterization of a general class of life-testing models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2016

M. E. Ghitany*
Affiliation:
Kuwait University
M. A. El-saidi*
Affiliation:
Ferris State University
Z. Khalil*
Affiliation:
Concordia University
*
Postal address: Department of Statistics and Operations Research, Faculty of Science, Kuwait University, P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait.
∗∗Postal address: Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan 49307, U.S.A.
∗∗∗Postal address: Concordia University, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4B 1R6.

Abstract

In this paper we establish a characterization theorem for a general class of life-testing models based on a relationship between conditional expectation and the failure rate function. As a simple application of the theorem, we characterize the gamma, Weibull, and Gompertz distributions, since they have many probabilistic and statistical properties useful in both biometry and engineering reliability.

Type
Short Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Applied Probability Trust 1995 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

On sabbatical leave at Kuwait University.

References

Azlarov, T. and Volodin, N. (1986) Characterization Problems Associated with the Exponential Distribution. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dimitrov, B. and Khalil, Z. (1990) On a new characterizing property of the exponential distribution. J. Appl. Prob. 27, 221226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galambos, J. and Kotz, S. (1978) Characterizations of Probability Distributions; A Unified Approach with an Emphasis on Exponential and Related Models. Lecture Notes in Mathematics 675, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar
Johnson, N. L. and Kotz, S. (1970) Distributions in Statistics: Continuous Univariate Distributions 1. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Koicheva, M. (1993) A characterization of the gamma distribution in terms of conditional moments. Appl. Math. 38, 1922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letac, J. (1985) A characterization of the gamma distribution. Adv. Appl. Prob. 17, 911912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar