Oversimplification and Overstandardization in Biological Methods: Sperm Bioassays in Ecotoxicology as a Case of Study and a Proposal for Their Reformulation

Figure 8

Effect of the spermatic half-life (𝜏) on the estimation of the parameter 𝑚_𝐹 (ED₅₀) by means of model (1) at different times, supposing observations with a negligible error (𝜎=5×10⁻⁴). Simulations with model (7), combining the following pairs of true parametric values: □: 𝜏=0.6, 𝑚_𝜏=0.25; ■: 𝜏=0.6, 𝑚_𝜏=0.35; ◯: 𝜏=0.4, 𝑚_𝜏=0.25; ●: 𝜏=0.6, 𝑚_𝜏=0.35 (the rest of the parametric values as in Table 1). Bars indicate the confidence intervals (𝛼=0.05) of the estimates.