Meta-analysis of general step-stress experiments under repeated Type-II censoring

A multi-sample model for general step-stress experiments based on sequential order statistics is proposed and analyzed, where the numbers of observations under each stress level are pre-specified. Contrary to common step-stress approaches, an arbitrary absolutely continuous lifetime distribution can be chosen, and, due to the experimental design of repeated Type-II censoring, the existence of maximum likelihood estimators for the parameters of interest is always guaranteed. Estimation and testing of the model parameters associated with the stress levels is examined, and inference under a log-linear link function is considered. Simulation studies illustrate some of the statistical procedures.