Excess zeros and overdispersion are common phenomena that limit the use of traditional Poisson regression models for modeling count data. Both excess zeros and overdispersion caused by unobserved heterogeneity are accounted for by the proposed zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regression mixture...

Asset health prediction is imperative to optimal asset management. Online and offline inspections can provide useful information for predicting asset health. The information from an asset health inspection can be divided into two types. (1) Direct indicators which directly determine failures...

Item count techniques (ICTs) are indirect survey questioning methods designed to deal with sensitive features. These techniques have gained the support of many applied researchers and undergone further theoretical development. Latterly in the literature, two new item count methods, called...

This paper addresses the poor performance of the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm in the estimation of low-noise dynamic factor models, commonly used in macroeconomic forecasting and nowcasting. We show analytically and in Monte Carlo simulations how the EM algorithm stagnates in a...

This paper aims to evaluate Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) insurance values through regime-switching models. We separate periods of the economy with faster growth from those with slower growth to observe long-term trends in the economy. We derive a fair PBGC insurance pricing...

Dynamic factor models (DFMs), which assume the existence of a small number of unobserved underlying factors common to a large number of variables, are very popular among empirical macroeconomists. Factors can be extracted using either nonparametric principal components or parametric Kalman...

The present method allows to detect outlying observations in data which may be described by a deterministic function plus a stochastic component. This type of functional relationship often occurs in experimental data, in toxicological research, for instance. The Hampel identifier, an outlier...

The determination of toxicokinetic parameters is an essential component in the risk assessment of potential harmful chemicals. It is a key step to analyse the processes involved in the formation of DNA adducts which are connected with the development of chemical-induced cancer. A general problem...