Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Continued fraction representation for expected cell counts of a 2 x 2 table: a rapid and exact method for conditional maximum likelihood estimation.

Authors: Satten, G A; Kupper, L L

Published In Biometrics, (1990 Mar)

Abstract: The expected cell count for a 2 x 2 contingency table, governed by the noncentral (extended) hypergeometric distribution, is expressed as a terminating continued fraction. The coefficients in the continued fraction are better behaved than the multinomial coefficients required for the usual moment calculation. The expected cell count must be calculated repeatedly in a conditional maximum likelihood analysis of K2 x 2 contingency tables. Since the continued fraction can be easily evaluated, a rapid and numerically stable computational algorithm results. Once this first moment is known, higher moments can be obtained as shown by Harkness (1965, Annals of Mathematical Statistics 36, 938-945). A BASIC program to implement the continued fraction algorithm is given in an appendix.

PubMed ID: 2350569 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: No MeSH terms associated with this publication

Back
to Top