A Comparison of Continuous Distributions of Parameters of Exponential Decay Curves

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Abstract
Exponential decay curves are frequently encountered in biologic systems. Several circumstances may arise in which the best model is that which treats the rate variable as being continuously distributed. One specific system for which this is felt to be true is the N washout curve. Three possibilities which have been suggested as a rate variable are compared and they are shown to be interchangeable and equivalent in information content. Models ulitizing each of these in conjunction with either the gamma or the normal distribution function are also presented and are reported to be equally capable of fitting the data of several test problems. The choice between variables and between models is thus somewhat arbitrary and is made on the basis of familiarity and ease of interpretation.