Affiliations 

  • 1 College of Computer and Communication Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, Shandong, China
  • 2 State-owned Asset and Laboratory Management Department, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, Shandong, China
  • 3 Institute of Complexity Science, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, Shandong, China
  • 4 Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Kuching 93350, Malaysia
PLoS One, 2017;12(11):e0186853.
PMID: 29095845 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186853

Abstract

Experimental design focuses on describing or explaining the multifactorial interactions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. The design introduces conditions that may directly affect the variation, where particular conditions are purposely selected for observation. Combinatorial design theory deals with the existence, construction and properties of systems of finite sets whose arrangements satisfy generalized concepts of balance and/or symmetry. In this work, borrowing the concept of "balance" in combinatorial design theory, a novel method for multifactorial bio-chemical experiments design is proposed, where balanced templates in combinational design are used to select the conditions for observation. Balanced experimental data that covers all the influencing factors of experiments can be obtianed for further processing, such as training set for machine learning models. Finally, a software based on the proposed method is developed for designing experiments with covering influencing factors a certain number of times.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.