Yet another application of the Monte Carlo method for modeling in the field of biomedicine

Authors:
R. Cassia-Moura;C. S. Sousa;A. D. Ramos;L. C. B. B. Coelho;M. M. Valença
Affiliations:
International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste 34100, Italy;Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife 50740-540, Brazil;Departamento de Fisica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife 50740-540, Brazil;Departamento de Bioquimica, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife 50740-540, Brazil;Departamento de Neuropsiquiatria, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife 50740-540, Brazil
Venue:
Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine
Year:
2005

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Abstract

By means of Monte Carlo simulations performed in the C programming language, an example of scientific programming for the generation of pseudorandom numbers relevant to both teaching and research in the field of biomedicine is presented. The relatively simple algorithm proposed makes possible the statistical analysis of sequences of random numbers. The following three generators of pseudorandom numbers were used: the rand function contained in the stdlib.h library of the C programming language, Marsaglia's generator, and a chaotic function. The statistical properties of the sequences generated were compared, identical parameter values being adopted for this purpose. The properties of two estimators in finite samples of the pseudorandom numbers were also evaluated and, under suitable conditions, both the maximum-likelihood and method of moments proved to be good estimators. The findings demonstrated that the proposed algorithm appears to be suitable for the analysis of data from random experiments, indicating that it has a large variety of possible applications in the clinical practice.