Optimal designs for the proportional interference model (Q2515490)

The authors investigate the proportional interference model. This is a block design model as usual with block effects and (direct) treatment effects, but moreover with left and right neighbor treatment effects assumed to be proportional to its direct effect. In the undirectional case the (left and right) constants of proportionality are equal, otherwise we have the directional case. In this paper, the authors use Kiefer's equivalence theorems and find A-, D-, E- and T-optimal (circular) designs for the direct treatment effect (Theorem 1) and the total treatment effect which is the summation of direct and neighbor effects (Theorem 2). Furthermore, they obtain optimal designs for the undirectional case and establish the connection between optimal designs for directional and undirectional models. Finally, optimal designs through computer search based on Theorem 1 and 2 are determined using a small modification of an algorithm in [\textit{W. Zheng}, ``Supplement to `Optimal crossover designs for the proportional model'{''}, \url{doi:10.1214/13-AOS1148SUPP}, Ann. Stat. 41, No. 4, 2218--2235 (2013; Zbl 1277.62191)].