code: def _fitstart(self, x):
      """example method, method of moment estimator as starting values
  
      Parameters
      ----------
      x : ndarray
          data for which the parameters are estimated
  
      Returns
      -------
      est : tuple
          preliminary estimates used as starting value for fitting, not
          necessarily a consistent estimator
  
      Notes
      -----
      This needs to be written and attached to each individual distribution
  
      This example was written for the gamma distribution, but not verified
      with literature
  
      """
      loc = np.min([x.min(), 0])
      a = 4 / stats.skew(x) ** 2
      scale = np.std(x) / np.sqrt(a)
      return (a, loc, scale)
  
file_path: statsmodels/statsmodels/sandbox/distributions/sppatch.py
imports: from statsmodels.compat.python import lmap
  import numpy
  from scipy import stats, optimize, integrate
label_desc: Use image node_id 1 for calling a global function with example usage: _fitstart(x) and returns: a,  loc,  scale