How to decide whether small samples comply with an equidistribution
Pöschel T, Freund JA (2003)
Publication Status: Published
Publication Type: Journal article, Original article
Publication year: 2003
Journal
Publisher: Elsevier
Book Volume: 69
Pages Range: 63-72
Journal Issue: 1
URI: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303264703000303
DOI: 10.1016/S0303-2647(03)00030-3
Abstract
The decision whether a measured distribution complies with an equidistribution is a central element of many biostatistical methods. High throughput differential expression measurements, for instance, necessitate to judge possible over-representation of genes. The reliability of this judgement, however, is strongly affected when rarely expressed genes are pooled. We propose a method that can be applied to frequency ranked distributions and that yields a simple but efficient criterion to assess the hypothesis of equiprobable expression levels. By applying our technique to surrogate data we exemplify how the decision criterion can differentiate between a true equidistribution and a triangular distribution. The distinction succeeds even for small sample sizes where standard tests of significance (e.g. χ) fail. Our method will have a major impact on several problems of computational biology where rare events baffle a reliable assessment of frequency distributions. The program package is available upon request from the authors. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Pöschel, T., & Freund, J.A. (2003). How to decide whether small samples comply with an equidistribution. Biosystems, 69(1), 63-72. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0303-2647(03)00030-3
MLA:
Pöschel, Thorsten, and Jan A. Freund. "How to decide whether small samples comply with an equidistribution." Biosystems 69.1 (2003): 63-72.
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