19-Jun-2013 Analyse-it Method Evaluation Edition 3.5 alpha 3 now available

Update 14th October 2013

The Analyse-it Method Validation Edition version 3.50 has now been released, see Analyse-it Method Validation edition version 3.5 is now available.

Original article

Today we released the 3^rd alpha release of the Analyse-it Method Evaluation Edition 3.5. Alpha releases are versions of the software that are still in active development, but are released to small group of customers so we can identify and fix any problems before the public beta release.

This release now completes the package with method comparison, which includes Deming regression, Passing-Bablok regression, and Bland-Altman difference plots. Linearity, precision analysis, diagnostic performance (ROC analysis and binary test performance) and reference intervals were already included in earlier alpha releases.

If you would like to take part in this and subsequent test phases reply to this post or contact us. The test releases will run alongside any existing version of Analyse-it, so your day-to-day work won't be interrupted or affected. And those who help during testing will receive a discount on the upgrade (a free upgrade for those who contribute the most) when the product is released later this year.

New features in the release include:

Method Comparison

• All method comparison functions: scatters plots, difference plots, and fits, are now in one place so it’s easy to make decisions or choose fits after looking at the data.
• Ordinary linear, Weighted linear, Ordinary Deming, Weighted Deming and Passing & Bablok regressions.
• Constant difference and relative difference plots with mean difference, allowable difference, and limits of agreement.
• Kappa and Weighted Kappa qualitative method comparison.
  
• Bootstrap confidence intervals for parameters and bias in Passing & Bablok regression.
• Exact p-values on CUSUM linearity test.
• Predict mean difference at decision levels.
• Equality and equivalence hypothesis tests at decision levels.

Precision

• Graybill-Wang / Ting-Burdick-Graybill-Jeyaratnam-Lu modified large sample confidence interval estimators for variance components – produces confidence closer to the stated level than Satterthwaire confidence intervals, which can be too liberal.
• Support for unbalanced 1-way and 2-way nested random ANOVA models.

Linearity

• Hsieh-Liu confidence interval estimator for degree of nonlinearity.
• Equality and equivalence hypothesis tests for nonlinearity.

Reference interval

• Harrel-Davis, Bootstrap, and Robust Biweight quantiles.
• Box-Cox and other transformations.

ROC

• Compare up to 10 independent or correlated ROC curves.
• Equality, equivalence and non-inferiority hypothesis tests.
• Estimate false positive fraction (FPF) at fixed sensitivity, sensitivity at fixed FPF, and sensitivity/FPF at fixed cut-off.
• Find optimal decision threshold based on costs.

Binary diagnostic tests

• Compare sensitivity and specificity of 2 independent or correlated tests.
• Diagnostic odds-ratio and Youden’s index.
• Improved confidence interval estimators for likelihood ratio and predictive values.