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J S Simonoff

Publications and source records attributed to J S Simonoff.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Prediction in censored survival data: a comparison of the proportional hazards and linear regression models.

Although the analysis of censored survival data using the proportional hazards and linear regression models is common, there has been little work examining the ability of these estimators to predict time to failure. This is unfortunate, since a predictive plot illustrating the relationship between time to failure and a continuous covariate can be far more informative regarding the risk associated with the covariate than a Kaplan-Meier plot obtained by discretizing the variable. In this paper the predictive power of the Cox (1972, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 34, 187-202) proportional hazards estimator and the Buckley-James (1979, Biometrika 66, 429-436) censored regression estimator are compared. Using computer simulations and heuristic arguments, it is shown that the choice of method depends on the censoring proportion, strength of the regression, the form of the censoring distribution, and the form of the failure distribution. Several examples are provided to illustrate the usefulness of the methods.

Biometry↗

Estimation and inference in pharmacokinetic models: the effectiveness of model reformulation and resampling methods for functions of parameters.

It is well known that high parameter estimate correlations and asymptotic variance estimates can cause estimation and inference problems in the analysis of pharmacokinetic models. In this paper we show that analysis of three important functions of pharmacokinetic parameters, the half-life, mean residence time, and the area under the curve, can sometimes be greatly improved by reformulating the model to address collinearity and by using the bootstrap to form confidence intervals. The resultant estimators can be more accurate than the original ones, and resultant confidence intervals can be narrower. Of the three measures, the half-life estimator is much better behaved than the estimators of mean residence time and area under the curve under collinearity, suggesting that it (or measures like it) should be used more often.

Analysis of Variance↗

Alternative estimation procedures for Pr(X less than Y) in categorized data.

Consider two independent random variables X and Y. The functional R = Pr(X less than Y) [or gamma = Pr(X less than Y) - Pr(Y less than X)] is of practical importance in many situations, including clinical trials, genetics, and reliability. In this paper several approaches to estimation of gamma when X and Y are presented in discretized (categorical) form are analyzed and compared. Asymptotic formulas for the variances of the estimators are derived; use of the bootstrap to estimate variances is also discussed. Computer simulations indicate that the choice of the best estimator depends on the value of gamma, the underlying distribution, and the sparseness of the data. It is shown that the bootstrap provides a robust estimate of variance. Several examples are treated.

Analysis of Variance↗