On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 05:27:22PM +1300, Frank Scherr wrote: > Hello together, > > Is there a tool to test the statistical differences between parameter > estimates of a nlsList fit? > > I fitted degradation data using the nlsList method and want to find out > whether derived rate constants are significantly different from each other at > the grouping factors soil and temperature. >
here is a physicist's (not a mathematician's) answer: from each nls-fit you get an estimate of the std. error of the parameter estimate. so you have,e.g., (a1 +/- del_a1) from fit 1 and (a2 +/- del_a2) -- where a1 and a2 are actually the same parameter in the model -- from fit 2. since you thus have actual estimated errors, I'd simply ask "what is the error estimate of the difference", i.e. a1 - a2 and, assuming independent underlying data, compute this by gaussian error propagation (i.e. assuming normal distributions of the parameter estimates). here, the variances (squares of ths std. errors) add up: del_[a1-a2]^2 = del_a1^2 + del_a2^2 if (a1-a2) +/- del_[a-a2] (or rather 2-3 times that error) is compatible with zero, a and a2 do not differ significantly, else they do. HTH joerg ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
