Biomedical subjects

Guthrie Miller

Publications and source records attributed to Guthrie Miller.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2007

Statistical modelling of Poisson/log normal data.

In statistical data fitting, self consistency is checked by examining the closeness of the quantity chi(2)/NDF to 1, where chi(2) is the sum of squares of data minus fit divided by standard deviation, and NDF is the number of data minus the number of fit parameters. In order to calculate chi(2) one needs an expression for the standard deviation. In this note several alternative expressions for the standard deviation of data distributed according to a Poisson/log-normal distribution are proposed and evaluated by Monte Carlo simulation. Two preferred alternatives are identified. The use of replicate data to obtain uncertainty is problematic for a small number of replicates. A method to correct this problem is proposed. The log-normal approximation is good for sufficiently positive data. A modification of the log-normal approximation is proposed, which allows it to be used to test the hypothesis that the true value is zero.

Computer Simulation↗

PubMed2002

Using exact Poisson likelihood functions in Bayesian interpretation of counting measurements.

A technique for computing the exact marginalized (integrated) Poisson likelihood function for counting measurement processes involving a background subtraction is described. An empirical Bayesian method for determining the prior probability distribution of background count rates from population data is recommended and would seem to have important practical advantages. The exact marginalized Poisson likelihood function may be used instead of the commonly used Gaussian approximation. Differences occur in some cases of small numbers of measured counts, which are discussed. Optional use of exact likelihood functions in our Bayesian internal dosimetry codes has been implemented using an interpolation-table approach, which means that there is no computation time penalty except for the initial setup of the interpolation tables.

Bayes Theorem↗