Singularities in Multiresponse Modelling

Abstract

Care is required when analysing multiple response data if misleading results are to be avoided. Box et al. [4] have warned of errors in analysis resulting from linear relationships among the response data, and have provided a detection procedure. This is effective for most situations; however, we have encountered two cases that require additional consideration. This paper extends the work of Box et al. to include these cases. The key issue is the detection of singularities in the multiresponse dispersion matrix, and a procedure for this is presented. The situation is also discussed in which linear dependencies in the data may be ignored to advantage. Illustrations are from chemical kinetics investigations.

KEYWORDS:

• Chemical kinetics
• Linear dependencies
• Multiresponse
• Parameter estimation
• Singularities