Date of Award

9-10-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Mathematics and Statistics

First Advisor

Edward D. White, PhD.

Abstract

Growth curves are used to model various processes, and are often seen in biological and agricultural studies. Underlying assumptions of many studies are that the process may be sampled forever, and that samples are statistically independent. We instead consider the case where sampling occurs in a finite domain, so that increased sampling forces samples closer together, and also assume a distance-based covariance function. We first prove that, under certain conditions, the mean parameter of a fixed-mean model cannot be estimated within a finite domain. We then numerically consider more complex growth curves, examining sample sizes, sample spacing, and quality of parameter estimates, and close with recommendations to practitioners.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-DAM-ENC-10-1

DTIC Accession Number

ADA528355

Included in

Analysis Commons

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