Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces

Chapter 1: Introduction to Response Surface Methodology

Questions when planning initial set of experiments:

1. Which input variables should be studied?

2. Should the input variables be examined in their original form, or should transformed input variables be employed?

3. How should response be measured?

4. At which levels of a given input variable should experiments be run?

5. How complex a model is necessary in a particular situation?

6. How shall we choose qualitative variables?

7. What experimental arrangement (experimental design) should be used?

Chapter 2: Use of Graduating Functions

Polynomial approximations:

• a polynomial of degree d can be thought of as a Taylor series expansion of the true underlying theoretical function y(x) truncated after terms of dth order
• the higher the degree d, the more closely the Taylor series can approximate the true function
• the smaller the region R over which y(x) is being approximated with the polynomial approximation, the better the approximation

Issues with application of polynomial approximations:

• least squares - how does it work? what are its assumptions?
• standard errors of coefficients - how to estimate the standard deviations of the linear coefficients?
• adequacy of fit - approximating an unknown theoretical function empirically; need to be able to check whether a given degree of approximation is adequate; how can analysis of variance (ANOVA) and examination of residuals (observed - fitted values) help to check adequacy of fit?
• designs - what designs are suitable for fitting polynomials of first and second degrees? (Ch. 4, 5, 15, 13)
• transformations - how can one find transformations (generally)?

Chapter 3: Least Squares for Response Surface Work

Method of Least Squares

Least squares helps you to understand a model of the form:

y = f(x,t) + e

where:

E(y) = eta = f(x,t)

is the mean level of the response y which is affected by k variables (x1, x2, ..., xk) = x

It also involves p parameters (t1, t2, ..., tp) = t

e is experimental error

To examine this model, experiments would run at n different sets of conditions, x1, x2, ..., xn

would then observe corresponding values of response y1, y2, ..., yn

Two important questions:

1. does postulated model accurately represent the data?

2. if model does accurately represent data, what are best estimates of parameters t?

start with second question first

Given: function f(x,t) for each experimental run

n discrepancies:

$ {y1 - f(x1,t)}, {y2 - f(x2,t)}, ..., {yn - f(xn,t)} $

Method of least squares selects best value of t that make the sum of squares smallest:

$ S(t) = \sum_{u=1}^{n} \left[ y_n - f \left( x_u, t \right) \right]^2 $

S(t) = sum of squares function

minimizing choice of t is denoted

$ \hat{t} $

are least-squares estimates of t good?

their goodness depends on the nature of the distribution of their errors

least-squares estimates are appropriate if you can assume that experimental errors:

$ \epsilon_u = y_u - \eta_u $

are statistically independent and with constant variance, and are normally distributed

these are "standard assumptions"

Linear models

this is a limiting case, where

$ \eta = f(x,t) = t_1 z_1 + t_2 z_2 + ... + t_p z_p $

adding experimental error $ \epsilon = y - \eta $:

$ y = t_1 z_1 + t_2 z_2 + ... + t_p z_p + \epsilon $

model of this form is linear in the parameters

Algorithm

Formulate a problem with n observed responses, p parameters...

this yields n equations of the form

y_1 = t_1 z_{11} + t_2 z_{21} + ...

y_2 = t_1 z_{21} + t_2 z_{22} + ...

etc...

This can be written in matrix form:

$ \mathbf{y} = \mathbf{Z t} + \boldsymbol{\epsilon} $

and the dimensions of each matrix are:

• y = n x 1
• Z = n x p
• t = p x 1
• epsilon = n x 1

the sum of squares function is given by:

$ S(\mathbf{t}) = \sum_{u=1}^{n} \left( y_u - t_1 z_{1u} - t_2 z_{2u} - ... - t_p z_{pu} \right)^2 $

or,

$ S(t) = ( y - Zt )^{\prime} ( y - Zt ) $

this can be rewritten as:

$ \mathbf{ Z^{\prime} Z t = Z^{\prime} y } $

Rank of Z

If there are relationships between the different input parameters (z's), then the matrix Z can become singular

e.g. if there is a relationship z2 = c z1, then you can only estimate the linear combination z1 + c z2

reason: when z2 = c z1, changes in z1 can't be distinguished from changes in z2

Z (an n x p matrix) is said to be full rank p if there are no linear relationships of the form:

a_1 z_1 + a_2 z_2 + ... + a_p z_p l= 0

if there are q > 0 independent linear relationships, then Z has rank p - q

Analysis of Variance: 1 regressor

Assume simple model $ y = \beta + \epsilon $

This states that y is varying about an unknown mean $ \beta $

Suppose we have 3 observations of y, $ \mathbf{y} = (4, 1, 1)' $

Then the model can be written as $ y = z_1 t + \epsilon $

and $ z_1 = (1, 1, 1) ' $

and $ t = \beta $

so that

[ 4 ] [ 1 ] [ \epsilon_1 ] [ 1 ] = [ 1 ] t + [ \epsilon_2 ] [ 1 ] [ 1 ] [ \epsilon_3 ]

Supposing the linear model posited a value of one of the regressors t, e.g. $ t_0 = 0.5 $

Then you could check the null hypothesis, e.g. $ H_0 : t = t_0 = 0.5 $

If true, the mean observation vector given by $ \eta_0 = z_1 t_0 $

or,

[ 0.5 ] [ 1 ] [ 0.5 ] = [ 1 ] 0.5 [ 0.5 ] [ 1 ]

and the appropriate "observation breakdown" (whatever that means?) is:

$ y - \eta_0 = ( \hat{y} - \eta_0 ) + ( y - \hat{y} ) $

Associated with this observation breakdown is an analysis of variance table:

Source	Degrees of freedom (df)	Sum of squares (square of length), SS	Mean square, MS	Expected value of mean square, E(MS)
Model	1	$ \vert \hat{y} - \eta_0 \vert^2 = ( \hat{t} - t_0 )^2 \sum z_1^2 $	6.75	$ \sigma^2 + ( t - t_0 )^2 \sum z_1^2 $
Residual	2	$ \vert y - \hat{y} \vert^2 = \sum ( y - \hat{t} z_1 )^2 $	3.00	$ \sigma^2 $
Total	3	$ \vert y - \eta_0 \vert^2 = \sum ( y - \eta_0 )^2 = 12.75 $

sum of squares: squared lengths of vectors

degrees of freedom: number of dimensions in which vector can move (geometric interpretation)

the model $ y = z_1 t + \epsilon $ says whatever the data is, the systematic part $ \hat{y} - \eta_0 = ( \hat{t} - t_0) z_1 $ of $ y - \eta_0 $ must lie in the direction of $ z_1 $, which gives $ \hat{y} - \eta_0 $ only one degree of freedom.

Whatever the data, the residual vector must be perpendicular to $ z_1 $ (why?), and so it can move in 2 directions and has 2 degrees of freedom

Now, looking at the null hypothesis:

the component $ \vert \hat{y} - \eta_0 \vert^2 = ( \hat{t} - t_0 )^2 \sum z^2 is a measure of discrepancy between POSTULATED model <math>\eta_0 = z_1 t_0 $ and ESTIMATED model $ \hat{y} = z_1 \hat{t} $

Making "standard assumptions" (earlier), expected value of sum of squares, assuming model is true, is $ ( t - t_0 )^2 \sum z_1^2 + \sigma^2 $

for the residual component it is $ 2 \sigma^2 $ (or, in general, $ \nu_2 \sigma^2 $, where $ \nu_2 $ is number of degrees of freedom of residuals)

Thus a measure of discrepancy from the null hypothesis $ t = t_0 $ is $ F = \frac{ \vert \hat{y} - \eta_0 \vert^2 / 1 }{ \vert y - \hat{y} \vert^2 / 2 } $

if the null hypothesis were true, then the top and bottom would both estimate the same $ \sigma^2 $

So if F is different from 1, that indicates departure from null hypothesis

The MORE F differs from 1, the more doubtful the null hypothesis becomes