A two-sample model for the comparison of radiation doses

Abstract

The t-test is one of the most well known parametric statistical procedures that can be applied to the problem of two-sample comparison. However, it relies on several assumptions that might not be satisfied in practice and therefore alternative methods are called for. The contribution of this article is to present a relatively new technique for the comparison of two samples in the context of semiparametric statistical inference and apply the new method to the comparison of external radiation doses in the region of Cyprus. Accordingly, without specifying the parametric form of the distribution of the two samples, it is assumed that their log likelihood ratio is linear in some parameters. This in turn leads to empirical likelihood estimation and comparison. Real data analysis shows that the external dose rate does not vary upon the type of rock formation-a fact which does not hold for the terrestrial radiation. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.