A graphical and statistical method for investigation of time series in chronobiology according to the cosinor procedure.

The mathematical and statistical analysis of biological time series is complex. In view of the necessity to deal with non equidistant data to analyse biological variables, preference is often given to the "cosinor procedure". We propose here a graphical and statistical assistance program for single or multiple cosinor procedure applicable to time series in chronobiology. This program investigates whether a cosine function or a mixture of cosine functions describe the experimental data adequately. The computer program is illustrated on data which have been published in a preceding paper.