PLS, Small Sample Size, and Statistical Power in MIS Research

Author(s):  
D. Goodhue ◽  
W. Lewis ◽  
R. Thompson
1990 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall M. Peterman

Ninety-eight percent of recently surveyed papers in fisheries and aquatic sciences that did not reject some null hypothesis (H0) failed to report β, the probability of making a type II error (not rejecting H0 when it should have been), or statistical power (1 – β). However, 52% of those papers drew conclusions as if H0 were true. A false H0 could have been missed because of a low-power experiment, caused by small sample size or large sampling variability. Costs of type II errors can be large (for example, for cases that fail to detect harmful effects of some industrial effluent or a significant effect of fishing on stock depletion). Past statistical power analyses show that abundance estimation techniques usually have high β and that only large effects are detectable. I review relationships among β, power, detectable effect size, sample size, and sampling variability. I show how statistical power analysis can help interpret past results and improve designs of future experiments, impact assessments, and management regulations. I make recommendations for researchers and decision makers, including routine application of power analysis, more cautious management, and reversal of the burden of proof to put it on industry, not management agencies.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Lung Shih ◽  
Te-Yu Hung

Abstract Background A small sample size (n < 30 for each treatment group) is usually enrolled to investigate the differences in efficacy between treatments for knee osteoarthritis (OA). The objective of this study was to use simulation for comparing the power of four statistical methods for analysis of small sample size for detecting the differences in efficacy between two treatments for knee OA. Methods A total of 10,000 replicates of 5 sample sizes (n=10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 for each group) were generated based on the previous reported measures of treatment efficacy. Four statistical methods were used to compare the differences in efficacy between treatments, including the two-sample t-test (t-test), the Mann-Whitney U-test (M-W test), the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S test), and the permutation test (perm-test). Results The bias of simulated parameter means showed a decreased trend with sample size but the CV% of simulated parameter means varied with sample sizes for all parameters. For the largest sample size (n=30), the CV% could achieve a small level (<20%) for almost all parameters but the bias could not. Among the non-parametric tests for analysis of small sample size, the perm-test had the highest statistical power, and its false positive rate was not affected by sample size. However, the power of the perm-test could not achieve a high value (80%) even using the largest sample size (n=30). Conclusion The perm-test is suggested for analysis of small sample size to compare the differences in efficacy between two treatments for knee OA.


2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 5034-5034
Author(s):  
J. A. Borgia ◽  
C. Frankenberger ◽  
S. E. McCormack ◽  
K. A. Kaiser ◽  
L. Usha ◽  
...  

5034 Background: A practical serum-based screening test for endometrial and ovarian carcinomas could greatly improve their early diagnosis, but developing such a test has proved elusive. Herein, we describe methods offering increased statistical power over conventional ‘batch’ analyses, via paired patient serum samples to identify biomarkers specific for uterine endometriod carcinomas (UEA). Methods: Paired serum samples (collected pre- and post- surgery) were prepared from patients undergoing UEA resection. A Ciphergen SELDI-TOF mass spectrometer was used to generate the patient serum proteomic profiles with data acquisition optimized to the 5,000–40,000 m/z (mass) range. Spectra quality was assessed using a specific function within the R-project statistical platform (v2.2.0), whereas data analyses were performed using Bioconductor, an extension of the R statistical platform; all in a blinded manner. Raw spectra were processed as follows: spectra pair normalization, baseline subtraction, and differential peak detection (with calibrated alignment). Aligned peaks were sorted into groups, based on tumor pathology and pre- vs. post-operative specimen type, and compared using a two tailed homoscedastic t-test in Microsoft Excel 2003. Results: Pre- and post-operative serum from 10 patients with UEA had their serum proteomic profiles evaluated for peaks lost after surgery. These values were then compared with a set of ‘normal’ samples (i.e. patients undergoing surgery for benign gynecologic disease). Even with our small sample size we identified 16 serum components that were significantly reduced or absent (p < 0.04) after tumor resection; 10 unique to UEA (p <0.04). From this group, species at m/z values of 4291.9, 4414.2, 5036.1, 9,615.0, and 25,508.8 seem most promising, based on their high level of significance (p < 0.02), for 10/10 patients. Conclusions: These results validate the power of our pre-and post-operative sample sets for the identification of new serum biomarker candidates for UEA. Work is in progress to increase the patient sample size, expand the study to patients with serous uterine and ovarian carcinomas, and identify the reported biomarker candidates via tandem mass spectrometry No significant financial relationships to disclose.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Gabbiadini ◽  
Eirini Zacharopoulou ◽  
Federica Furfaro ◽  
Vincenzo Craviotto ◽  
Alessandra Zilli ◽  
...  

Background: Intestinal fibrosis and subsequent strictures represent an important burden in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The detection and evaluation of the degree of fibrosis in stricturing Crohn’s disease (CD) is important to address the best therapeutic strategy (medical anti-inflammatory therapy, endoscopic dilation, surgery). Ultrasound elastography (USE) is a non-invasive technique that has been proposed in the field of IBD for evaluating intestinal stiffness as a biomarker of intestinal fibrosis. Objective: The aim of this review is to discuss the ability and current role of ultrasound elastography in the assessment of intestinal fibrosis. Results and Conclusion: Data on USE in IBD are provided by pilot and proof-of-concept studies with small sample size. The first type of USE investigated was strain elastography, while shear wave elastography has been introduced lately. Despite the heterogeneity of the methods of the studies, USE has been proven to be able to assess intestinal fibrosis in patients with stricturing CD. However, before introducing this technique in current practice, further studies with larger sample size and homogeneous parameters, testing reproducibility, and identification of validated cut-off values are needed.


Author(s):  
Jonah T Hansen ◽  
Luca Casagrande ◽  
Michael J Ireland ◽  
Jane Lin

Abstract Statistical studies of exoplanets and the properties of their host stars have been critical to informing models of planet formation. Numerous trends have arisen in particular from the rich Kepler dataset, including that exoplanets are more likely to be found around stars with a high metallicity and the presence of a “gap” in the distribution of planetary radii at 1.9 R⊕. Here we present a new analysis on the Kepler field, using the APOGEE spectroscopic survey to build a metallicity calibration based on Gaia, 2MASS and Strömgren photometry. This calibration, along with masses and radii derived from a Bayesian isochrone fitting algorithm, is used to test a number of these trends with unbiased, photometrically derived parameters, albeit with a smaller sample size in comparison to recent studies. We recover that planets are more frequently found around higher metallicity stars; over the entire sample, planetary frequencies are 0.88 ± 0.12 percent for [Fe/H] &lt; 0 and 1.37 ± 0.16 percent for [Fe/H] ≥ 0 but at two sigma we find that the size of exoplanets influences the strength of this trend. We also recover the planet radius gap, along with a slight positive correlation with stellar mass. We conclude that this method shows promise to derive robust statistics of exoplanets. We also remark that spectrophotometry from Gaia DR3 will have an effective resolution similar to narrow band filters and allow to overcome the small sample size inherent in this study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinya Hosokawa ◽  
Kyosuke Momota ◽  
Anthony A. Chariton ◽  
Ryoji Naito ◽  
Yoshiyuki Nakamura

AbstractDiversity indices are commonly used to measure changes in marine benthic communities. However, the reliability (and therefore suitability) of these indices for detecting environmental change is often unclear because of small sample size and the inappropriate choice of communities for analysis. This study explored uncertainties in taxonomic density and two indices of community structure in our target region, Japan, and in two local areas within this region, and explored potential solutions. Our analysis of the Japanese regional dataset showed a decrease in family density and a dominance of a few species as sediment conditions become degraded. Local case studies showed that species density is affected by sediment degradation at sites where multiple communities coexist. However, two indices of community structure could become insensitive because of masking by community variability, and small sample size sometimes caused misleading or inaccurate estimates of these indices. We conclude that species density is a sensitive indicator of change in marine benthic communities, and emphasise that indices of community structure should only be used when the community structure of the target community is distinguishable from other coexisting communities and there is sufficient sample size.


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