Optimal designs for mixed models in experiments based on ordered units

We consider experiments for comparing treatments using units that are ordered linearly over time or space within blocks. In addition to the block effect, we assume that a trend effect influences the response. The latter is modeled as a smooth component plus a random term that captures departures from the smooth trend. The model is flexible enough to cover a variety of situations; for instance, most of the effects may be either random or fixed. The information matrix for a design will be a function of several variance parameters. While data will shed light on the values of these parameters, at the design stage, they are unlikely to be known, so we suggest a maximin approach, in which a minimal information matrix is maximized. We derive maximin universally optimal designs and study their robustness. These designs are based on semibalanced arrays. Special cases correspond to results available in the literature.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS518 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Maximin and maximin-efficient event-related fMRI designs under a nonlinear model

Previous studies on event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experimental designs are primarily based on linear models, in which a known shape of the hemodynamic response function (HRF) is assumed. However, the HRF shape is usually uncertain at the design stage. To address this issue, we consider a nonlinear model to accommodate a wide spectrum of feasible HRF shapes, and propose efficient approaches for obtaining maximin and maximin-efficient designs. Our approaches involve a reduction in the parameter space and a search algorithm that helps to efficiently search over a restricted class of designs for good designs. The obtained designs are compared with traditional designs widely used in practice. We also demonstrate the usefulness of our approaches via a motivating example.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/13-AOAS658 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Optimal Designs for 2^k Factorial Experiments with Binary Response

We consider the problem of obtaining D-optimal designs for factorial experiments with a binary response and $k$ qualitative factors each at two levels. We obtain a characterization for a design to be locally D-optimal. Based on this characterization, we develop efficient numerical techniques to search for locally D-optimal designs. Using prior distributions on the parameters, we investigate EW D-optimal designs, which are designs that maximize the determinant of the expected information matrix. It turns out that these designs can be obtained very easily using our algorithm for locally D-optimal designs and are very good surrogates for Bayes D-optimal designs. We also investigate the properties of fractional factorial designs and study the robustness with respect to the assumed parameter values of locally D-optimal designs.Comment: 41 pages, 3 figures, 8 table

On The Yeh­Bradley Conjecture for Treatment­Control Design

It is shown that the Yeh­Bradley Conjecture for linear trendfree block design (Yeh and Bradley (1983)) is valid for BTIB ( v, b, k; t, s) designs </jats:p