Some sufficient conditions for establishing (M,S)-optimality

Two sufficient conditions are given for an incomplete block design to be (M,S- optimal. For binary designs the conditions are (i) that the elements in each row, excluding the diagonal element, of the association matrix differ by at most one, and (ii) that the off-diagonal elements of the block characteristic matrix differ by at most one. It is also shown how the conditions can be utilized for nonbinary designs and that for blocks of size two the sufficient condition in terms of the association matrix can be attained.     

On optimality properties of simple block designs in the approximate design theory

Optimality properties of approximate block designs are studied under variations of (1) the class of competing designs, (2) the optimality criterion, (3) the parametric function of interest, and (4) the statistical model. The designs which are optimal turn out to be the product of their treatment and block marginals, and uniform designs when the support is specified in advance. Optimality here means uniform, universal, and simultaneous j_p-optimality. The classical balanced incomplete block designs are embedded into this approach, and shown to be simultaneously j_p-optimal for a maximal system of identifiable parameters. A geometric account of universal optimality is given which applies beyond the context of block designs.     

Optimum covariate designs in partially balanced incomplete block (PBIB) design set-ups

The use of covariates in block designs is necessary when the covariates cannot be controlled like the blocking factor in the experiment. In this paper, we consider the situation where there is some flexibility for selection in the values of the covariates. The choice of values of the covariates for a given block design attaining minimum variance for estimation of each of the parameters has attracted attention in recent times. Optimum covariate designs in simple set-ups such as completely randomised design (CRD), randomised block design (RBD) and some series of balanced incomplete block design (BIBD) have already been considered. In this paper, optimum covariate designs have been considered for the more complex set-ups of different partially balanced incomplete block (PBIB) designs, which are popular among practitioners. The optimum covariate designs depend much on the methods of construction of the basic PBIB designs. Different combinatorial arrangements and tools such as orthogonal arrays, Hadamard matrices and different kinds of products of matrices viz. Khatri–Rao product, Kronecker product have been conveniently used to construct optimum covariate designs with as many covariates as possible.     

Incomplete block designs for symmetrical parallel line assays

New series of incomplete block designs for symmetrical parallel lines are proposed. From these designs important contrasts like L_p, L₁ and L′₁ are estimated free from block effects. In addition to these, other odd order contrasts are also estimated orthogonal to block effects. The designs are shown to have simple analysis.     

On the construction of m-associate PBIB designs I

The m-associate triangular association scheme has been discussed, and several series of partially balanced incomplete block (PBIB) designs with m-associate triangular association scheme have been obtained in Section 1. In Section 2, an m-associate triangular-group divisible association scheme $\text{(T}{}_{\mathrm{q}}\text{—}\text{GD}\text{m}\text{, 1<q<m)}$ has been introduced and several series of PBIB designs with m-associate triangular group divisible association scheme, from m-associate triangular PBIB designs have been constructed. Some numerical values to the three associate triangular designs, and three associate triangular group divisible designs in the range b, v≦100; r, k≦10, with their average efficiencies are given, respectively, in Tables I and II, in Section 3, where as usual v denotes the number of treatments, b the number of blocks, r the number of replications of each treatment, and k the block size.     

The family of t-designs - part II

This is a continuation of Part I of our previous paper (1980) on conbinatorial aspects of t-designs with t ≥ 2. Along the same developments as in Part I, this paper provides tables, assorted examples of t-designs, and interesting unsolved problems. A brief background and a short review of the literature related to each unsolved problem is also provided. Some tables list parameters of designs whose existence or nonexistence is not established in literature. Notation and numbering of Part I are still used here.     

Some d-optimal weighing designs for n≡ (mod 4)

A number of D-optimal weighing designs are constructed with the help of block matrices. The D-optimal designs (n,k,s)=(19,13,10), (19,14,7), (19,14,8), (19,15,7), (19,15,8), (19,17,6), (19,18,6), (23,16,8), (23,17,8), (23,18,8), (4n?1,2n+3,(3n+4)/2), (4n?1,2n+4,n+3), (4n?1,2n+4,n+2) where n≡0 mod 4 and a skew H_n exists, (31,24,8), (31,25,8) and many others are constructed. A computer routine leading to locally D-optimal designs is presented.     

On a robustness property of PBIBD

In this paper we study a robustness property of partially balanced incomplete block designs based on association schemes with m classes (PBIBD(m)) against the unavailability of data in the sense that, when any t (a positive integer) observations are unavailable the design remains connected w.r.t. treatment. We characterize the robustness property of PBIBD(m) completely for m=2 and partially for m=3.     

Complete designs with blocks of maximal multiplicity

The set of distinct blocks of a block design is known as its support. We construct complete designs with parameters v(?7), k=3, λ=v ? 2 which contain a block of maximal multiplicity and with support size $\text{b}{}^1\text{= (}{}^{\mathrm{v}}{}_3\text{) ? 4(v ? 2)}$. Any complete design which contains such a block, and has parameters v, k, λ as above, must be supported on at most (^v₃) ? 4(v ? 2) blocks. Attention is given to complete designs because of their direct relationship to simple random sampling.     

Construction of (M,S)-optimal design for block size 3

(M,S)-optimal designs are constructed for block size three when the number of treatments is of the form 6t + 3.     

Optimal saturated block designs when observations are correlated

A- and MV-optimal block designs are identified in the class of minimally connected designs when the observations within blocks are spatially correlated. All connected designs are shown to be D-equal regardless of the correlation structure, and a sufficient condition for E-optimality is presented. Earlier results for the uncorrelated case are strengthened.     

D-optimal block designs with at most six varieties

For given positive integers v, b, and k (all of them ≥2) a block design is a k × b array of the variety labels 1,…,v with blocks as columns. For the usual one-way heterogeneity model in standard form the problem is studied of finding a D-optimal block design for estimating the variety contrasts, when no balanced block design (BBD) exists. The paper presents solutions to this problem for v≤6. The results on D-optimality are derived from a graph-theoretic context. Block designs can be considered as multigraphs, and a block design is D-optimal iff its multigraph has greatest complexity (=number of spanning trees).     

Saturated designs for multivariate cubic regression

This paper deals with the problem of finding saturated designs for multivariate cubic regression on a cube which are nearly D-optimal. A finite class of designs is presented for the k dimensional cube having the property that the sequence of the best designs in this class for each k is asymptotically efficient as k increases. A method for constructing good designs in this class is discussed and the construction is carried out for 1?k?8. These numerical results are presented in the last section of the paper.     

Designs for cropping systems research

The present article establishes equivalence between extended group divisible (EGD) designs and designs for crop sequence experiments. This equivalence has encouraged the agricultural experimenters to use EGD designs for their experimentation. Some real life applications of EGD designs have been given. It has also been shown that several existing association schemes are special cases of EGD association scheme. Some methods of construction of EGD designs are also given. A catalogue of EGD designs obtainable through methods of construction along with efficiency factors of various factorial effects is also presented. In some crop sequence experiments that are conducted to develop suitable integrated nutrient supply system of a crop sequence, the treatments do not comprise of a complete factorial structure. The experimenter is interested in estimating the residual and direct effect of the treatments along with their cumulative effects. For such experimental settings block designs with two sets of treatments applied in succession are the appropriate designs. The correspondence established between row–column designs and block designs for two stage experiments by Parsad et al. [2003. Structurally incomplete row–column designs. Comm. Statist. Theory Methods 32(1), 239–261] has been exploited in obtaining designs for such experimental situations. Some open problems related to designing of crop sequence experiments are also given.     

A construction for generalized hadamard matrices GH(4q, EA(q))

We give a construction for a generalized Hadamard matrix GH(4q, EA(q)) as a 4 × 4 matrix of q × q blocks, for q an odd prime power other than 3 or 5. Each block is a GH(q, EA(q)) and certain combinations of 4 blocks form GH(2q, EA(q)) matrices. Hence a GH(4q, EA(q)) matrix exists for every prime power q.     

Optimality in presence of damaged observations

In this paper we study a situation where, instead of observing $\text{y}\text{(N×1)}$, we observe $\text{y}\text{+}\text{d}$; where the random variables in the vector d are called damage components. It is shown that A- and E-optimum designs minimize the effect of d in the mean square error (m.s.e.) of estimable linear functions of parameters under the ordinary linear model.     

Regular group divisible designs and Bhaskar Rao designs with block size three

Some recursive constructions are given for Bhaskar Rao designs. Using examples of these designs found by Shyam J. Singh, Rakesh Vyas and new ones given here we show the necessary conditions λ≡0 (mod 2), λυ(υ?1)≡0 (mod 24) are sufficient for the existence of Bhaskar Rao designs with one association class and block size 3. This result is used with a result of Street and Rodger to obtain regular partially balanced block designs with 2υ treatments, block size 3, λ₁=0, group size 2 and υ groups.     

Addition of runs to a two-level supersaturated design

The purpose of this article is to introduce a new class of extended E(s²)-optimal two level supersaturated designs obtained by adding runs to an existing E(s²)-optimal two level supersaturated design. The extended design is a union of two optimal SSDs belonging to different classes. New lower bound to E(s²) has been obtained for the extended supersaturated designs. Some examples and a small catalogue of E(s²)-optimal SSDs are also included.     

Efficient experimental designs for sigmoidal growth models

For the Weibull- and Richards-regression model robust designs are determined by maximizing a minimum of D  - or _D1$D_1$-efficiencies, taken over a certain range of the non-linear parameters. It is demonstrated that the derived designs yield a satisfactory solution of the optimal design problem for this type of model in the sense that these designs are efficient and robust with respect to misspecification of the unknown parameters. Moreover, the designs can also be used for testing the postulated form of the regression model against a simplified sub-model.     

Optimum designs in complete two-way layouts

In the usual two-way layout of ANOVA (interactions are admitted) let nij ? 1 be the number of observations for the factor-level combination(i, j). For testing the hypothesis that all main effects of the first factor vanish numbers $\text{n}{}^1\text{ij}$ are given such that the power function of the F-test is uniformly maximized (U-optimality), if one considers only designs (nij) for which the row-sums ni are prescribed. Furthermore, in the (larger) set of all designs for which the total number of observations is given, all D-optimum designs are constructed.