Rather than using the parameter value of the variance for ˆ j as was done in the calculation of N, to compute NM, Equation 3 uses the upper bound of the 100(1 − ) percent confidence interval for the variance of ˆ j. Recall that in any given sample the obtained variance of ˆ j will be either larger or smaller than the parameter value specified in Equation 2. Equation 3 uses the maximum value expected for the variance of ˆ j at the 100(1 − ) percent confidence level.