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Some Definitions:
Treatments set of circumstances created for the experiment in response to research
hypotheses. The focus of the investigation. (Kuehl [2000])
Experimental Units the smallest unit to which a treatment can be applied (Bailey
[2008])
Observational Units the smallest unit on which a response will be measured (Bai-
ley [2008])
Replication
Replication is the application of each treatment to one or more experimental
units, independently. Thus it is repetition of the experiment. Why replicate?
3. The first 15 rats on this list are allocated to the treatment group, and the
remaining 15 are allocated to the control group.
proc plan;
factors treatment=30;
run;
to generate a randomisation of the numbers 1-30. Then allocate the first treatment
to the rats in the first 15 positions of the randomisation and the second treatment
to the rats in the second 15 positions of the randomisation.
T u e s d a y , F e b ru a ry 1 1 , 2 0 1 4 1 1 :0 8 :4 0 P M 1
T h e P L A N P ro c e d u re
F a c to r S e le c t L e v e ls O r d e r
tr e a tm e n t 2 4 2 4 R a n d o m
tr e a tm e n t
1 2 1 5 1 6 1 7 6 1 9 1 1 2 3 2 1 9 1 4 2 2 0 1 0 3 1 3 1 8 2 2 2 4 1 7 4 8 5
• proximity (plots of land in a field, animals from the same litter, patients in
the same hospital),
• management of tasks in the experiment (all plots in the same block must be
harvested on the same day, all components in the same block must go in the
oven at the same time).
More Definitions:
Factor a particular variable, such as temperature, pressure or screen colour.
Factorial experiment one which investigates the effects of several factors simul-
taneously on the characteristic(s) of interest.
• Which of these factors will you include in the experiment and allow to take on
different values? What values can they take?
• Which of these factors will you hold constant during the experiment? At what
level for each one?
• Block designs: Use attributes of the experimental units to group them into
sets of homogeneous units. Treatments are applied within sets of homogeneous
units.
How would you allocate levels of A and B to leaves in each of the following scenarios?
• You have 8 plants and 4 leaves from each plant. Four different leaf ages are
represented on each plant (same age across plants).
• You have 4 plants and you use 8 leaves (4 old and 4 young) from each plant.
• You have 4 plants and from each plant you choose 4 pairs of leaves (2 old and
2 young).
• measurement errors
Three possible experiments are described below. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each of the experiments?
Expt 1 The shirts are divided randomly into three groups of four shirts. Each group
receives a treatment as one batch and then each batch is processed in one run
of the simulation machine. There are three runs of the simulation machine.
Expt 3 The shirts are divided randomly into three groups of four shirts. The treat-
ments are applied independently to single shirts. The shirts are grouped into
four sets of three shirts, one from each treatment, and each of these groups
are placed in one run of the simulation machine. There are four runs of the
simulation machine.
http://www.cpa.ca/ethics2000.html
It states “III.29 Give a research participant the option of removing his or her
data...and if the removal of the data will not compromise the validity of the re-
search design and hence diminish the ethical value of the participation of the other
research participants.”
The papers that reported the later trials typically referred to just 4 of the earlier
studies and the same 4 at that. This suggests that an inadequate literature review
had been carried out. More details in Fergusson (Clinical Trials, 2005).
References
R. Bailey. Design of comparative experiments. Cambridge Univ Pr, 2008. ISBN
0521683572.