title: Limiting efficiencies of the non-parametric median method for A exp(-kt) data.
abstract: Weighted least squares analysis and the median method are used to extract A and k from simulated single exponential decays. The standard deviations of these parameters (sigma p) depend upon the method of analysis. The sigma p are compared as efficiencies (= sigma 2p[least squares]/sigma 2p[median]). These efficiencies depend upon the range of the decay and the underlying error structure. These include errors independent of the data, approximately equal to the data and approximately equal to the square root of the data. Some efficiencies fall well below 25% for the median method. Such instances reflect the large cost of not knowing or not using the weights; they amount to ignoring greater than 75% of the data we strive to collect.
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors: A H
authors: AH
authors: Kalantar
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D007700:Kinetics; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013223:Statistics as Topic