Simple robust parameter estimation for the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution

© 2015, Wang et al. We study the problem of robust estimation for the two-parameter Birnbaum-Saunders distribution. It is well known that the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) is efficient when the underlying model is true but at the same time it is quite sensitive to data contamination that is often encountered in practice. In this paper, we propose several estimators which have simple closed forms and are also robust to data contamination. We study the breakdown points and asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators. These estimators are then applied to both simulated and real datasets. Numerical results show that the proposed estimators are attractive alternative to the MLE in that they are quite robust to data contamination and also highly efficient when the underlying model is true

Computational geometry and its Application to Computer Graphics

This paper gives a basic introduction into some of the techniques and data structures developed in computational geometry with emphasis on their use in computer graphics applications. Due to the limited space only global ideas are outlined and no details are presented. References are added, in particular in a subsection "Further Reading" at the end of each section, for those that are interested in learning more about the topics treate