On the computation of the noncentral F and noncentral beta distribution
- 234 Downloads
- 6 Citations
Abstract
Unfortunately many of the numerous algorithms for computing the comulative distribution function (cdf) and noncentrality parameter of the noncentral F and beta distributions can produce completely incorrect results as demonstrated in the paper by examples. Existing algorithms are scrutinized and those parts that involve numerical difficulties are identified. As a result, a pseudo code is presented in which all the known numerical problems are resolved. This pseudo code can be easily implemented in programming language C or FORTRAN without understanding the complicated mathematical background.
Symbolic evaluation of a finite and closed formula is proposed to compute exact cdf values. This approach makes it possible to check quickly and reliably the values returned by professional statistical packages over an extraordinarily wide parameter range without any programming knowledge.
This research was motivated by the fact that a very useful table for calculating the size of detectable effects for ANOVA tables contains suspect values in the region of large noncentrality parameter values compared to the values obtained by Patnaik’s 2-moment central-F approximation. The cause is identified and the corrected form of the table for ANOVA purposes is given. The accuracy of the approximations to the noncentral-F distribution is also discussed.
Keywords
Minimal detectable differences ANOVA Noncentrality parameter Central-F approximations to noncentral F Recursive algorithms Symbolic computationPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
- Benton, D., Krishnamoorthy, K.: Computing discrete mixtures of continuous distributions: noncentral chisquare, noncentral t and the distribution of the square of the sample multiple correlation coefficient. Comput. Stat. Data Anal. 43, 249–267 (2003) MathSciNetGoogle Scholar
- Chattamvelli, R.: On the doubly noncentral F distribution. Comput. Stat. Data Anal. 20, 481–489 (1995) CrossRefzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Chattamvelli, R., Shanmugam, R.: Algorithm AS 310, computing the non-central beta distribution function. Appl. Stat. 46(1), 146–156 (1997) zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Ding, C.G.: On using Newton’s method for computing the noncentrality parameter of the noncentral F distribution. Commun. Stat. Simul. Comput. 26(1), 259–268 (1997) CrossRefzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Ding, C.G.: An efficient algorithm for computing quantiles of the noncentral chi-squared distribution. Comput. Stat. Data Anal. 29, 253–259 (1999) CrossRefzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Frick, H.: AS R84. A remark on Algorithm AS 226, computing noncentral beta probabilities. Appl. Stat. 39, 311–312 (1990) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Guirguis, G.H.: A note on computing the noncentrality parameter of the noncentral F distribution. Commun. Stat. Simul. Comput. 19, 1497–1511 (1990) CrossRefMathSciNetzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Helstorm, C.W., Ritcey, J.A.: Evaluation of the noncentral F distribution by numerical contour integration. SIAM J. Sci. Stat. Comput. 6(3), 505–514 (1985) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Henrici, P.: Essentials of Numerical Analysis with Pocket Calculator Demonstrations. Wiley, New York (1982) zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Johnson, N.L., Leone, F.C.: Statistics and Experimental Design in Engineering and the Physical Sciences, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York (1977) zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Johnson, N.L., Kotz, S., Balakrishnan, N.: Continuous Univariate Distributions, vol. 2, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York (1995) zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Klatte, R., Kulisch, U., Wiethoff, A., Lawo, C., Rauch, M.: C-XSC. A C++ Class Library for Extended Scientific Computing. Springer, New York (1993) zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Knüsel, L., Bablok, B.: Computation of the noncentral gamma distribution. SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 17(5), 1224–1231 (1996) CrossRefMathSciNetzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Lam, M.L.: Remark AS R95: A remark on Algorithm AS 226: computing non-central beta probabilities. Appl. Stat. 44, 551–552 (1995) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Lenth, R.V.: Computing noncentral beta probabilities. Appl. Stat. 36, 241–244 (1987) CrossRefzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Lorenzen, T.J., Anderson, V.L.: Design of Experiments. A No-Name Approach. Dekker, New York (1993) zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Narula, S.C., Weistroffer, H.R.: Computation of probability and non-centrality parameter of noncentral F distribution. Commun. Stat. Simul. Comput. 15, 871–878 (1986) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Norton, V.: A simple algorithm for computing the noncentral F distribution. Appl. Stat. 32, 84–85 (1983) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Patnaik, P.B.: The non-central χ 2 and F distribution and their applications. Biometrika 36, 202–232 (1949) MathSciNetzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Posten, H.O.: An effective algorithm for the noncentral beta distribution function. Am. Stat. 47, 129–131 (1993) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Severo, N., Zelen, M.: Normal approximation to the chi-square and noncentral F probability functions. Biometrika 47, 411–416 (1960) MathSciNetzbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Sibuya, M.: On the noncentral beta distribution function (1967). Unpublished manuscript. The equation can be found in the book of Johnson, Kotz, and Balakrishnan (1995), p. 485 (30.12) Google Scholar
- Singh, K.P., Relyea, G.E.: Computation of noncentral F probabilities. A computer program. Comput. Stat. Data Anal. 13, 95–102 (1992). The misprint on p. 97 was corrected by Chattamvelli (1995) CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Tiku, M.L.: A note on approximating to the noncentral F distribution. Biometrika 53, 606–610 (1966) MathSciNetGoogle Scholar
- Tiwari, R.C., Yang, J.: Algorithm AS 318: An efficient recursive algorithm for computing the distribution function and non-centrality parameter of the non-central F-distribution. Appl. Stat. 46, 408–413 (1997) zbMATHGoogle Scholar
- Wang, M.C., Kennedy, W.J.: A self-validating numerical method for computation of central and non-central F probabilities and percentiles. Stat. Comput. 5, 155–163 (1995) CrossRefGoogle Scholar