175,437 research outputs found
Where do statistical models come from? Revisiting the problem of specification
R. A. Fisher founded modern statistical inference in 1922 and identified its
fundamental problems to be: specification, estimation and distribution. Since
then the problem of statistical model specification has received scant
attention in the statistics literature. The paper traces the history of
statistical model specification, focusing primarily on pioneers like Fisher,
Neyman, and more recently Lehmann and Cox, and attempts a synthesis of their
views in the context of the Probabilistic Reduction (PR) approach. As argued by
Lehmann [11], a major stumbling block for a general approach to statistical
model specification has been the delineation of the appropriate role for
substantive subject matter information. The PR approach demarcates the
interrelated but complemenatry roles of substantive and statistical information
summarized ab initio in the form of a structural and a statistical model,
respectively. In an attempt to preserve the integrity of both sources of
information, as well as to ensure the reliability of their fusing, a purely
probabilistic construal of statistical models is advocated. This probabilistic
construal is then used to shed light on a number of issues relating to
specification, including the role of preliminary data analysis, structural vs.
statistical models, model specification vs. model selection, statistical vs.
substantive adequacy and model validation.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/074921706000000419 in the IMS
Lecture Notes--Monograph Series
(http://www.imstat.org/publications/lecnotes.htm) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
The Energetics of Molecular Adaptation in Transcriptional Regulation
Mutation is a critical mechanism by which evolution explores the functional
landscape of proteins. Despite our ability to experimentally inflict mutations
at will, it remains difficult to link sequence-level perturbations to
systems-level responses. Here, we present a framework centered on measuring
changes in the free energy of the system to link individual mutations in an
allosteric transcriptional repressor to the parameters which govern its
response. We find the energetic effects of the mutations can be categorized
into several classes which have characteristic curves as a function of the
inducer concentration. We experimentally test these diagnostic predictions
using the well-characterized LacI repressor of Escherichia coli, probing
several mutations in the DNA binding and inducer binding domains. We find that
the change in gene expression due to a point mutation can be captured by
modifying only a subset of the model parameters that describe the respective
domain of the wild-type protein. These parameters appear to be insulated, with
mutations in the DNA binding domain altering only the DNA affinity and those in
the inducer binding domain altering only the allosteric parameters. Changing
these subsets of parameters tunes the free energy of the system in a way that
is concordant with theoretical expectations. Finally, we show that the
induction profiles and resulting free energies associated with pairwise double
mutants can be predicted with quantitative accuracy given knowledge of the
single mutants, providing an avenue for identifying and quantifying epistatic
interactions.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, supplemental info. available via
http://rpgroup.caltech.edu/mwc_mutant
Scientific Realism
This article endeavors to identify the strongest versions of the two primary arguments against epistemic scientific realism: the historical argument—generally dubbed “the pessimistic meta-induction”—and the argument from underdetermination. It is shown that, contrary to the literature, both can be understood as historically informed but logically validmodus tollensarguments. After specifying the question relevant to underdetermination and showing why empirical equivalence is unnecessary, two types of competitors to contemporary scientific theories are identified, both of which are informed by science itself. With the content and structure of the two nonrealist arguments clarified, novel relations between them are uncovered, revealing the severity of their collective threat against epistemic realism and its “no-miracles” argument. The final section proposes, however, that the realist’s axiological tenet “science seeks truth” is not blocked. An attempt is made to indicate the promise for a nonepistemic, purely axiological scientific realism—here dubbed “Socratic scientific realism.
Decision table for classifying point sources based on FIRST and 2MASS databases
With the availability of multiwavelength, multiscale and multiepoch
astronomical catalogues, the number of features to describe astronomical
objects has increases. The better features we select to classify objects, the
higher the classification accuracy is. In this paper, we have used data sets of
stars and quasars from near infrared band and radio band. Then best-first
search method was applied to select features. For the data with selected
features, the algorithm of decision table was implemented. The classification
accuracy is more than 95.9%. As a result, the feature selection method improves
the effectiveness and efficiency of the classification method. Moreover the
result shows that decision table is robust and effective for discrimination of
celestial objects and used for preselecting quasar candidates for large survey
projects.Comment: 10 pages. accepted by Advances in Space Researc
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