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As proposed by Ebrahimi, uncertainty in the residual lifetime distribution can be measured by means of the Shannon entropy. In this paper, we analyse a dual characterization of life distributions that is based on entropy applied to the past lifetime. Various aspects of this measure of uncertainty are considered, including its connection with the residual entropy, the relation between its increasing nature and the DRFR property, and the effect of monotonic transformations on it.

We analyse a non-Markovian generalization of the telegrapher's random process. It consists of a stochastic process describing a motion on the real line characterized by two alternating velocities with opposite directions, where the random times separating consecutive reversals of direction perform an alternating renewal process. In the case of Erlang-distributed interrenewal times, explicit expressions of the transition densities are obtained in terms of a suitable two-index pseudo-Bessel function. Some results on the distribution of the maximum of the process are also disclosed.

We consider a continuous-time Ehrenfest model defined over the integers from −N to N , and subject to catastrophes occurring at constant rate. The effect of each catastrophe instantaneously resets the process to state 0. We investigate both the transient and steady-state probabilities of the above model. Further, the first passage time through state 0 is discussed. We perform a jump-diffusion approximation of the above model, which leads to the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process with catastrophes. The underlying jump-diffusion process is finally studied, with special attention to the symmetric case arising when the Ehrenfest model has equal upward and downward transition rates.

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We propose a new deterministic growth model which captures certain features of both the Gompertz and Korf laws. We investigate its main properties, with special attention to the correction factor, the relative growth rate, the inflection point, the maximum specific growth rate, the lag time and the threshold crossing problem. Some data analytic examples and their performance are also considered. Furthermore, we study a stochastic counterpart of the proposed model, that is a linear time-inhomogeneous birth-death process whose mean behaves as the deterministic one. We obtain the transition probabilities, the moments and the population ultimate extinction probability for this process. We finally treat the special case of a simple birth process, which better mimics the proposed growth model.

As proposed by Ebrahimi, uncertainty in the residual lifetime distribution can be measured by means of the Shannon entropy. In this paper, we analyse a dual characterization of life distributions that is based on entropy applied to the past lifetime. Various aspects of this measure of uncertainty are considered, including its connection with the residual entropy, the relation between its increasing nature and the DRFR property, and the effect of monotonic transformations on it.

SUMMARYThe geometric telegrapher's process is proposed as a model to describe the dynamics of the price of risky assets. When the underlying random inter-times have Erlang distribution we express the probability law of such process in terms of a suitable two-index pseudo-Bessel function. Stochastic comparisons of two geometric telegrapher's processes based on the usual stochastic order (FSD comparison) and on the stoploss order are also performed. Various examples of application of such comparisons are then provided.